The Saturn Adept

(Complete with boring title, unoriginal plot, and painful Mary Sue x Isaac action!)

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A/N: ARGH I need to update a whole boatload of junk. Why do people keep on reviewing my fics near the bottom of my page? They... SUCK, you know. If I had a chance, I'd revise them, but considering I've long since deleted the stories off my writing computer, um...

Enough of my ramblings, enjoy the chapter. Even though it's so utterly cliché and horrible and... Wait! It's supposed to be like that! Too bad, so sad. (Azu's getting bad at sarcasm lately.)

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What could Jenna possibly say?

It was an ambush, for Mars's sake. And a really badly pulled off one, too.

Because Xanaeya was an assassin, and assassins were trained in having greased lightning-fast reflexes. Thus, the two men who had stormed at them were neatly cut in two at the waist, creating a glorious shower of crimson blood. (1)

Xanaeya calmly sheathed her katana, flipped her bangs out of her face, and continued walking, apparently not noticing or blatantly ignoring the massive blood stain covering her legs and chest.

Sheba and Jenna simply stared. (You can't blame the poor girls.)

"Xa... Xanaeya?" Jenna called hesitantly. The blonde woman stopped and looked at her over her shoulder, eyes an eerie off-white color. "What... happened?"

"We were ambushed," Xanaeya said. (As though that wasn't obvious already, Jenna's cynical mind muttered.) "By men who have hunted my clan since nearly the beginning of time."

"Hunting your clan? What for?" Sheba asked, suspicious.

"I'm not sure what for..." One of the first things she didn't know off the top of her head, Jenna thought.

"The Elders have never told us the reason of their hatred, except it runs deep in their blood. Supposedly, they are demons, plagued to haunt us for a sin we have committed long, long ago, but... That is only what my mother has told me."

"A sin?" Jenna blinked. Oh sure! the cynical mind drawled. She's from that clan, right? The gods knew she was gonna come from there, so they've been hunted as a sin for her eventual existence! Ouch.

"It deals with betrayal, broken promises, shattered friendships, and war. Not the most pleasant of sins." Xanaeya answered, her eyes slowly returning to a normal green. (Although, seeing them transition from off-white to pale green was rather... nauseating.)

"Er, well..." Jenna turned to look back at the corpses, and was surprised to find that they were no longer there. "They disappeared?"

"As demons, their corpses disappear once they have been killed." Xanaeya sighed and looked up at the blue sky mournfully. "Just like my father's..."

Jenna stared, eyes wide. Sheba gaped openly. You could just feel the drama.

"Your father was a demon?" Well, it seemed obvious enough, but Jenna had to ask anyways.

"Well, that explains a lot," Sheba muttered, recovering quickly. Jenna managed to stomp on her toe in a very subtle fashion. Xanaeya sighed dramatically.

"Yes, he was a demon. He raped my mother, and I was the result of their relationship. (2) I believe my demon heritage may be the reason why Alex decided to let me live -- demon blood is very powerful, you see. But I wonder why he has no fears that I would overtake him one day..."

"He's a bonehead, that's why." Jenna said loftily, giving Sheba a steely look that read 'Slip up and she'll murder you.' Sheba, however, didn't know whether Jenna was referring to herself or to Xanaeya. Whatever, the threat was still there. Xanaeya gave her a small, vaguely appreciative smile. "Um, if there aren't any other problems, why don't we resume our...um...trek?"

"Let's." Xanaeya's smile was genuine, as far as Jenna could tell. Sheba personally thought differently, but then, Sheba was smart enough to keep her mouth shut to avoid being decked and/or mercilessly gorged by Jenna.

They walked for several more minutes before they reached the edge of the small triangular forest outside of Vale. When Jenna scanned the tops of the trees, she saw no particularly large tree that stood above the rest. Rather, they all looked the same. With a deep feeling of doubt, she and Sheba followed Xanaeya into the fringes of the trees, which looked plenty more mystical than it did the last time Jenna's mother had sent her out to look for herbs.

Indeed, the forest did look a lot more...shiny than it did last Jenna had seen it. Once, Sheba stopped to peer at a floating orb of bluish light, and was about to poke it with a stick she'd picked up from the ground when Jenna grabbed her elbow and dragged her along. Xanaeya had also apparently managed to either scare away the few beasts that lurked in the forest, or make them her pets. While they walked, birds chirped (Jenna kept an eye out for one with an oddly shaped crest), squirrels ran amok the tree branches, and deer occasionally stared out at them shyly from behind the trunks of trees.

Jenna was all ready missing her old little patch of woods, and there hadn't been much lovable about it.

"Here we are." Xanaeya said, stopping suddenly in front of a huge tree. Jenna and Sheba -- as were expected of them – stared up at it in awe.

How did I miss something of this size all these years? Jenna asked herself, eyebrows furrowed in perplexity, staring up at the tree's branches, which seemed to cling to the sky.

Meanwhile, Sheba was thinking, What kind of fertilizer did they have to use to make something this large? There's no way it can be natural! Super Deluxe Chicken? Or was it horse?

A window about halfway up the tree was thrown open suddenly, and Isaac stuck his head out, waving enthusiastically down to the trio of women down at the bottom. "xaneayaaaaa!111!1"

"Come on, let's go in!" the Saturn Adept said, beckoning to them as she walked to the large front door. Sheba made a nervous sound, while Jenna looked as though she doubted her sanity (which she was doing quite often, by the way) for ever agreeing to come to this wretched place.

Only once Xanaeya had disappeared into the tree's entrance did Jenna make up her mind to give herself a good whack over the head sometime later and follow the blonde woman, dragging the protesting Sheba along in a punishing grip.

The entrance room had a moderately sized set of stairs in the middle of it, complete with a polished railing and red ribbons. Jenna and Sheba followed a little bit behind Xanaeya, who walked up the stairs in a way that could only be described as full of ease.

And this was the uptight assassin that had been sent to kill Isaac just a few days ago. Jenna stifled a sigh, releasing Sheba, knowing her well enough that she wouldn't bolt, despite being in the natural environment of the Enemy.

What Jenna had expected to be just a tree full of various levels with loads of staircases turned out to be a fashionably decorated, architecturally jaw-dropping marvel, with a surprisingly homey feel to it. The first room had a beautifully carved stone fireplace in one wall. On the (very) far side of the room was a black stove next to a wooden counter, which ran along the wall (which was not curved, as Jenna had anticipated, but rather, very straight). Off to the side was an elegant spiral staircase, which Isaac was rushing down at the moment, launching himself at the blonde assassin.

"xanaeya i missd u soooo0o0o0o0o0o0o muhc!111'" (3)

"I missed you too, dear." She said to him gently, smoothing some of his spiky strands of hair in vain.

"How long were they apart? An hour at most?" Sheba asked to Jenna in a whisper. Jenna gave her the Toe Stomp of Doom again, effectively cutting off any other snarky questions and/or comments from her.

"Well, this is my home," Xanaeya said, turning to face the two girls. "Feel free to explore. I'll make some more cookies and things. Isaac, you'll help, right?" She gave him a sickly sweet smile, and he nodded fervently. She raised her amber eyes to them, and beckoned with a free hand. "Go on."

Though looking hesitant, Jenna took Sheba's arm (again; Sheba was starting to protest more out of fear of losing her arm than being attacked by pixies) and dragged her (as usual) up the spiral staircase.

"I think I'm really disturbed that a psycho demon-angel-thing-assassin's making cookies with her 'beloved'." Sheba said as soon as they were on the second floor. Jenna glared at her for a moment, before the words sunk in.

"...Yeah, I don't blame you." Jenna said with a deep sigh, gazing around the room.

It was a comfortable sort of library-like room, every wall crammed with bookcases that reached floor to ceiling, each shelf jammed with books big and small, old and new, with leather covers, paper covers, and occasionally even a velvet one. (Velvet? the cynical mind said with a raised eyebrow. Do I want to know?)

"The Book of Dullahan..." Sheba read, going over to a bookcase and running her fingers across the spines. "The Mythology of Weyard... Dark Magic: The Tomegathericon, Parallel Worlds: Hyrule and Midgar...(4) What is all this?"

"Books, looks like." Jenna said to her dully, pulling out one of those strange velvet-covered tomes and opening it, leafing through the pages. Raising an eyebrow, she read from a page, "'If you ever happen to meet your true soulmate, your mind will realize it instantly, although you, yourself, may not. Your hands may sweat, your heart will pound, and you might find yourself stammering in front of them...' No wonder this book is covered with velvet."

"I don't think I want to know, much less ask, why she has that." Sheba said with one of those 'please save me' looks on her young face. She turned her green eyes back to the bookcase. "I wonder how she obtained all these books, though...?"

"You may not know it, but Xanaeya is quite the avid reader." A silky voice said from behind them. Both girls whipped around. Sitting on a large gilded chest was a pale girl with silver-blonde hair that was so long it pooled at her feet. Her eyes were a startling crimson color, and her elegantly arched eyebrows only added to their strange beauty. She was dressed in a royal mage's garb, and on her lap lay a curved wooden staff. (5) "She's read nearly every book in the royal library, in fact."

"Who are you?" Jenna could tell by the prickling of the hairs on the back of her neck that this was another one of them, but she didn't dare say it aloud. The woman smiled at her thinly.

"My name is Airetaliel." (6)

"Um, what?" Jenna blinked. Way to go with first impressions! muttered the cynical mind.

"I am...a friend of Xanaeya's." She said, cocking her head to one side, observing them. Jenna resisted the urge to bolt for the door.

"Are you an...elf?" Sheba inquired of her slowly, taking note of her slender, pointed ears.

"Elf?" Jenna asked blankly. There weren't any such things in Weyard, were there? (Even though there were chimeras and headless guardians and giant sea monsters...) "They...don't exist."

"But I am an elf, so they do exist." The woman stood in one fluid motion, her staff held in one hand. "I am from the forests of the far north."

"The north... Imil? Prox?" Sheba continued to ask, and Jenna didn't know why. She personally didn't want to do anything with this... ethereal-but-nonetheless-downright-creepy-thing. Or, maybe Sheba was being a dutiful... uh, sidekick, and was researching on the enemy? It was a long shot, but anything was possible.

"I have never heard of those places, but near where I was born, there was a... oh, what do you people call it? Oh, yes, a lighthouse."

"Well, that doesn't help much..." Sheba muttered, an eyebrow raised. "Was it red or blue?"

"It was blue."

"Imil." Sheba said with a nod to Jenna. "Where Mia comes from. That explains why she's so pale."

"Um, excuse me for a moment..." Jenna grabbed Sheba's arm and dragged her to the corner, watching Aire-whatsit out of the corner of the corner of her eye the entire time. "Sheba, why do you care so much about her?"

"Well, it's – "

"Your friend is only curious. She is a scholarly one, is she not?" Airetaliel said coolly, watching them with her frightening eyes without blinking at all. "Are you suspicious of me?"

Yeah, Jenna, the cynical mind muttered, there's no reason to be scared of some elf with superhearing and omnipotency.

"Er... There've never been elves seen before, so it's only natural of her to be a bit cautious." Sheba interrupted Jenna's garbled reply sheepishly. "I'm, um, sorry if it offends you."

"Not at all." Airetaliel said with a most gracious tone. "Now, shall we go on to the upper levels? I can show you around."

"That'd be nice." Jenna mumbled quickly before Sheba could answer for her again. Being cut off so often made her look and feel stupid. Giving Sheba a discreet slap to the back of the head, the two girls followed the elven lady out to the spiral staircase.

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Meanwhile, back in Vale...

"OMIGOD! You're Karst!"

Karst halted in her daily walk. Mind you, Karst did not walk daily for health reasons or to observe the scenery and/or people – she walked to give herself an excuse to get away from Marie and think of new plots to usurp the power from these creatures. She turned around to see a peculiar looking girl who looked out of place amongst the Valeans, due to her strange mage's robes and heavy metal jewelry. But that gut feeling told her that this was, indeed, one of them. "Who are you?"

"Oh my... You're KARST! I thought you were dead!" The girl stared at her, jaw slack. Karst hoped she wasn't staring back, it'd look awfully stupid.

"...Um, no." Karst raised an eyebrow. The mage had deep purple hair which glimmered in the sun, and sparkling blue eyes. (Geez, she thought, this girl just... sparkles.) "Who are you?" she asked again.

"Oh, my name's Katelyn, but call me whatever you want!"

Karst's eyes narrowed. She could think of plenty of names to call her, but most would probably make the atmosphere deteriorate due to their utter foulness. "Well, then, Katelyn, where are you from?"

"I... I, well... I'm not from Weyard."

Oh, no.

"I'm from a place called Earth..."

Double no.

"And, um, you might not get this, but over there, there's this game called Golden Sun... Well, there are two games, the first and then the sequel. But, see, the thing is, the game, it follows this... uh, story. You know, the first game follows Isaac, and how he sets out to retrieve the Elemental Stars, and get back Jenna and Kraden..."

Good gods, how long could this girl ramble? Karst allowed herself to stare.

"...and then in the second game... Felix... Wow, is he hot or what? ...Then you go to... Sail around... Elemental rocks..."

Karst could tell she was going to doze off soon, and continuously pinched herself on the arm behind her back to keep herself awake.

"And guess what? I have Psynergy! Isn't that, so, like, cool? I can make tornadoes happen! You could so never do that from where I come from! You'd be, like, God, if you could do this back at Earth! Isn't that awesome? ...Hey, Karst? ...Karst?"

Karst gave her head a little shake and blinked rapidly, hoping she hadn't fallen asleep for too long. "What?"

Katelyn was looking at her strangely. "Hey, Karst, do you want to be friends?"

Karst twitched. "No," she said vehemently, turning on her heel and walking away at a very fast pace.

"W-wait! Can't we talk this out or something? We'd be great friends, you know? I like fashion and jewelry and... oh, boys! Yeah, boys... Do you know where Felix is? Oooh, I want to meet him so badly...!"

"I don't know where he is." Karst answered flatly, speeding up her strides further. "And I wish you'd leave me alone."

"...Y-you don't like me?"

Karst turned around, noticing there weren't any footsteps following her. Katelyn stood some ways away, head bowed towards the ground, hands clenched at her sides.

"Whatever makes you think I ever did?" Yes, it was a nasty slap in the face, but Karst was always like that. You had to get used to her fast or face the consequences.

"I just fell into this world because of some freak accident..." Katelyn said quietly. Not the tears, Karst thought exasperatedly to herself. "And then, when I come here and meet you, you're not being helpful at all, and... and... WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO MEAN TO ME?"

Before she knew what was happening, Karst was lifted off her feet and thrown backwards to the ground. It hurt, but then, Proxian warriors could handle plenty more than that. Readying her scythe, Karst got to her feet, eyes narrowed and mouth set in a grim smile. Show this brat to bother her again.

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END CHAPTER SEVEN

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(1) – Cliché blood color and cliché killing! This one's for you, Mango. :D

(2) – Oh, the wangst! Always present in some shape or form in storylines. The character that was the result of a rape. Sigh. Get over it, okay? Rape isn't a good thing, but it's so OVERUSED no wonder it's... yeah.

(3) – I hate people wHo HaVe To CaPiTaLiZe EvErY oThEr LeTtEr, or use zeros. Also, the apostrophe-quote mistake at the end is another one of those usual errors. Shift and key, Suethor, not KeyShiftControlSpaceTab, like you may think it to be.

(4) – I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I couldn't help it.

(5) – ...I think I've used that sort of description before. In pieces. So I just assembled it, and you get that monstrous block of descriptive text.

(6) – Her name came from an Elven name generator. I don't recall what I put in to get it, but...now you know. Even I'm not that creative. (Creative? Another Sue-bashing fic after thousands have already been posted on the net? Pssh.)

...Erm, I'm sorry it's a rather short chapter. I'm trying to make them longer, I promise, but there's only so much you can put that's awfully Sueish in a chapter... I just get sick of writing this, sometimes, to be honest. (But wouldn't you, too?)

I'm sorry if your name's Katelyn. My sincerest apologies.

Expect a Sue to die sometime relatively soon.

As in, next chapter.

(Something to look forward to!)

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